Irish Translation Forum

Just a few questions on how you would pronounce some things. First, how does one say le grá go deo. The second is the pronunciation of the hero of Irish myths, Cúchulainn. I believe it is pronounce koo-hoo-lin, but I'm not sure. Also, how is his real name, Setanta said? Also, the pronunciation of Nár lagaí Dia do lámh on the site here seems to be missing a word or two. Could anyone tell me how they would say that so I can be sure? Thank you all for your help.

Stigmatic wrote:Just a few questions on how you would pronounce some things. First, how does one say le grá go deo. The second is the pronunciation of the hero of Irish myths, Cúchulainn. I believe it is pronounce koo-hoo-lin, but I'm not sure. Also, how is his real name, Setanta said? Also, the pronunciation of Nár lagaí Dia do lámh on the site here seems to be missing a word or two. Could anyone tell me how they would say that so I can be sure? Thank you all for your help.

OK...

Le ghrá go deo: "leh GHRAW guh joe" (the "gh" is kind of like the "ch" in "loch" or like a French uvular "r")

Nar lagaí Dia do lámh: "Nahr LA-gee JEE-uh duh lahv"

I've never been able to get "Cúchulainn" right.

Redwolf

To tell you the truth, I'd be interested in this. I have a book called Cwchwlin, which tells the story of the hero in Welsh. The CH is a definite 'loCH' sound and I'm wondering where the CH comes from if it's only a 'h' in Irish because we have a 'h' soun as well.

Cymro-Breatnach wrote:To tell you the truth, I'd be interested in this. I have a book called Cwchwlin, which tells the story of the hero in Welsh. The CH is a definite 'loCH' sound and I'm wondering where the CH comes from if it's only a 'h' in Irish because we have a 'h' soun as well.

Broad "ch" is the "loch" sound, but it's so darned hard to represent in print, I think a lot of books and websides just cop out and use the "h."

There should also be a difference between the first "ú" and the second (un-fadaed) "u."

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say KOO-khul-lin (where the "kh" is that throat-clearing "loch" sound).

We actually hashed this one out a while back, but I can't seem to find the thread (and I can't remember what was decided).

Redwolf

I've noticed that people seem to have enough trouble figuring out how to spell these names, to say nothing of pronunciation!

David

Redwolf wrote:
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say KOO-khul-lin (where the "kh" is that throat-clearing "loch" sound).



Redwolf

Thats how I'd say it anyway, except with the stress on the second syllable (i suppose cos thats where it'd go if you were just saying the name Culann). In some parts the throaty H sound is just pronounced as a regular H though, so
koo-kHull-in
or
koo-hull-in
both seem right to me

Setanta

It looks as if it should be pronounced sa-TAN-ta, but infact the proper pronunciation (and if u dont believe me take it up with my lecturer at Uni) is SHea-dan-ta. Yes that's right Meabh, I'm talking about Micheál!

hehe I actually did know how to say Setanta...but not from Micheál

Méabh wrote:hehe I actually did know how to say Setanta...but not from Micheál

Lucky you! He'll be very impressed that you know that!

Only if he doesn't find out I heard it from a former student of his